For the Iranian regime to offer training to the Iraqi Forces as well as to have a direct hand in the security of Iraq is like the fox volunteering to guard the chicken house. Instead of complying with Iranian demands, the Unites States should insist on the need for Iran to halt its terrorism in Iraq. For the mullahs in Iran, every inch that the U.S. concedes is interpreted as a sign of weakness that further emboldens the Iranian ruling clerics, and invites more terrorism and sectarian violence.
Given its massive investment in Iraq to date, the probability that Tehran will give up its network in Iraq and decommission its Qods Force is next to zero. Any concessions made by the U.S. would therefore only serve to undermine its own agenda.
The problem in Iraq is neither a civil nor a sectarian war. Iraq is now a battleground for the clash of two alternatives: the Islamic extremist option, which gets its orders from Tehran and seeks to establish an Islamic republic in Iraq, and a democratic alternative seeking a pluralistic democracy in the country.
Iraq will be secure and stable when Iran's influence is cut off, its agents arrested, militias disarmed and Tehran's proxies purged from the Iraqi government. At the same time the coalition of secular and nationalist Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds should be empowered. To accomplish that, the Unites States should be ready to take drastic measures regarding Iran.
War is not a viable option, but pressuring the Iranian regime, disrupting Iran's operations in Iraq and empowering the moderate voices in Iraq are all practical and effective steps that can, and must, be taken. Indeed many members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, including presidential candidates, argue that the U.S. can best exercise its leverage against Iran by removing the Iranian opposition, the MEK from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). According to these members of congress, the U.S. State Department included the MEK on the FTO list a decade ago in an effort to placate the mullahs in Tehran. In addition to allowing the MEK to use its full resources to counter Tehran's agenda in Iraq, such a move would send to the Iranian regime the unmistakable signal that the U.S. is serious about halting Iran's terrorist influence in Iraq and the rest of the region.
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